Cultural Landscape of Old Tea Forests of the Jingmai Mountain in Pu’er

Jingmai Mountain lies in Pu'er in Yunnan, where villages of the Blang and Dai peoples and old tea forests cover slopes at 1,250 to 1,500 metres. In the Tang and Song periods, about a thousand years ago, ancestors of the Blang found tea trees here, built villages in the forest and began to grow tea. The Dai arrived in the 14th century and developed tea planting and processing together with the Blang.

The villagers cut down only a few tall trees and planted tea beneath the rest, creating a forest of three layers: tall trees, tea trees and herbs. In 1406 Jingmai tea became tribute tea for the emperor, and plantations and villages multiplied. From the Song to the Qing, Pu'er was a centre for collecting and distributing tea, including along the Ancient Tea Horse Road. Pa Aileng, a Blang chief said to have discovered the tea, is worshipped as the Tea Ancestor, and the belief that spirits live in the plantations and in local plants and animals lives on in festivals and dances.

In the 1970s high-yield modern plantations were laid out in the protective forests and on terraces, harming the old trees, and traditional methods were later revived. The property comprises five old tea forests, nine traditional villages and three protective forests. In September 2023 the World Heritage Committee, meeting in Riyadh for its 45th session, inscribed it as the first World Heritage site with tea as its theme.